


Cognitive Dissonance

by BlueBoar



Series: Sense of Self [1]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amnesia, Attempted Murder, Blood and Gore, Catherine Wayne - Freeform, Child Abuse, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Court of Owls, Court of Owls Conspiracies, Depression, Dionesium, Eventual Romance, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, I try to keep the Joker in character, Kidnapping, Mania, Mental Breakdown, Mental Illness, Murder, Oral Sex, Past Sexual Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Torture, Resurrection, Sado-Masochism, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Therapy, There will be moments where he is somewhat humanized, Timeskips, Torture, Trauma, Vaginal Sex, batfamily, healing factor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 07:00:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12978600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueBoar/pseuds/BlueBoar
Summary: Catherine is found alive at the scene of her adopted family's murder with no memory of her life prior.  She is adopted by Bruce Wayne per his usual habit of adopting orphans and turning them crime-fighter.  After a run in with the Joker brings her some memories back she begins to question all that she knows.  Which version of her is more true, the identity she'd built with the bat-family? Or her forgotten life before them?





	Cognitive Dissonance

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a lot of the Joker in this fic as he is the main person Catherine will be shipped with, but this is still more or less a story about my OC, Catherine. Because of this the Joker will not be in the first 3 Chapters and we will be getting to know Catherine in them. 
> 
> ***Also important, there will be timeskips and though Catherine is 17 in the first chapter she will be at least 20 before any shipping or NSFW with older characters***
> 
> Disclaimer: DCU characters and story-lines do not belong to me, Catherine and a few other OCs that will appear in this story do.

The Murphys were not the most social of families in the small town of Hudson, if fact they were a somewhat private family living a couple miles out of town in a big cobblestone farmhouse.  Despite that most of the locals knew of Grace and Adam with their gaggle of adopted children.  They were respected too; a nice older couple who had left the big city in their youth and dedicated their lives to raising up the kids they adopted. You didn’t have to know them personally to at least think them charitable.    
  
Nine children had come and gone through their doors in the thirty years they devoted to fostering and adoption.  At the time of their deaths Adam and Grace had three children in their care, the youngest two seemed normal enough attending the local schools.  The eldest girl, Catherine, was homeschooled; deemed too sickly and fragile for public school like her step siblings.  She nearly never left the house for any reason in her seventeen years of existence.    
  
The family didn’t often come to town unless necessary, and they came even less after Jeremy. Jeremy had been one of the children they’d adopted living in their home for seventeen years before running away and cutting contact with his adopted family. He had been homeschooled aswell, but not for the same reasons as the Catherine. Jeremy had been a difficult and angry boy, and nothing they tried seemed to reach him.  Most of the children they raised went on to become influential and successful, but Jeremy, who had always been troubled, became a petty thief living on the street.   Jeremy only once came back to the farmhouse.  
***************************************************  
It was an unseasonably warm day in September when the Murphys were discovered in their farmhouse. Two days prior, on a Tuesday, Adam had called off from work and the children had stayed home from school, which wasn’t so unusual, once in awhile there was a day when the family would just stay in.  What was unusual was when the next two days the family did not return to school or work with no explanation.  No calls made to the house Wednesday and Thursday were answered and the neighbors began to worry.  Across the fields the big house was dark with no lights or movement inside, but the family car was still in the driveway.  The sun was setting on Thursday when someone finally made the drive out to the house to check in on the family.    
  
Mr. and Mrs.Right were a sweet couple even older than Grace and Adam.  They were  known to do thoughtful favors for their neighbors without being asked.  Some might say they were over-involved in the community, but they had the time after their children had grown up and left the nest.  They were one of the only local families that knew the Murphy's as more than acquaintances living close by as well as the fact that both still worked at the school the younger children attended.  Mrs.Right had even met Catherine a few times when coming out to the farmhouse to help tutor her in math.    
  
They came to the cobblestone farmhouse in their old pickup truck bearing the gifts of vaporub and a crockpot of chicken noodle soup assuming that the family all must’ve come down with a bad cold.  They pulled into the driveway and idled, Mr.Right took the heavy container from his wife while she hummed and thumbed through a pack of papers making sure she’d brought all the schoolwork the poor dears had missed so far.  “Got everything, honey?”, Mr. Right asked his wife with a chuckle as she straightened the papers appearing satisfied with them.  
  
“Almost, dear, just have to check we’ve got the right bag of clothes in the back, I though some of Tommy’s old things might fit their boy.  You can go ahead up to the house while I check.”, She explained to her husband and he nodded pushing the car door open carefully with his elbow.    
  
Halfway up the drive the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end as a bad feeling crept up on him.  Every one of the curtains were drawn in the big foreboding house as if warding away any visitors.  Despite the indistinct dread he kept moving up to the dark house, there was no real reason for fear just yet.  It was only near the top of the porch stairs that the ghastly picture began to come together in an awful way.  Ascending the stairs the first thing he noticed was the dark brown door directly in front of him was standing just slightly ajar.  The next thing that drew his eye was the tacky puddle of brown rimmed dark red liquid that had leaked from under the door with flies buzzing in it. The last thing that hit him was the horrible stench of rotting that seemed to roll over him all at once.    
  
He stumbled back half falling down the stairs in his immediate bumbling need to get away from the smell.  He was able to catch himself on the metal railing, but the crockpot was a loss.  It flew from his arms and smashed on the stairs  splashing broth over his shins.  The chipping paint on the railing stuck to his hands as he bent over in to retch into the bushes.  His wife began calling his name and he realized he had to stop her from coming up to the house.  “Stay back Nancy!”, he called hoarsely to his wife who was standing wide eyed a few steps from the truck.  He started back to the car stumbling on jello legs. “Start the car Nanc, start the car!”,  She jumped back climbing in and starting the car without argument.  Her husband was usually a calm collected man, she could trust from the tone of his voice and pallor of his face there was reason to fear.  “We need to go to the police…” he panted clamoring into the car.  Mrs. Right nodded silently, her mouth a hard line.    
  
The police made it to the farmhouse as it began to get dark out at the behest of some frantic old couple who had barreled into the station.  Four cars pulled up to the house parking haphazardly and tearing up big patches of grass from the lawn.  The officers swarmed around the front of the house silent and wary; this wasn’t the type of call that small town cops could usually come to expect.  There was some hope among them that this was some sort of misunderstanding and the family was fine, but there was something strange and dark in the air around the place.    
  
The first body they found was the father, Adam Murphy.  He was found when they slowly pushed the front door further open and it stopped on his skull hitting it with a dull thud. One of Adam’s legs was snapped with the bone exposed and his stomach had been completely torn apart leaving his entrails hanging out grotesquely with a wound that lead up to his half crushed face.    He had managed to crawl all the way from the living room to the front door leaving a snail-trail of blood and bile behind him.  He had almost made it out of the house before bleeding to death just behind the door.   
  
The living room was a mess of blood spatter and overturned furniture, the centerpiece being the middle son lying on his back in the middle of what once was the coffee table; eyes wide and milky, mouth red rimmed with flies crawling in and out. A thick kitchen knife protruded from his chest surrounded by gashes rendered by it before it came down the last time.  One of the officers signaled for them to split up, half taking the stairs and the other half venturing into the kitchen and dining room where the table was still set with dinner from two days ago partway eaten, now a feast for bugs and vermin.  Water dripped from the ceiling where it had began to warp with dark, angry water damage.  The slide glass door was broken leaving most of the far wall in the dining room wide open to the elements.  “Clear” called one of the officers towards the team upstairs indicating there was no one waiting in hiding on the first level.    


The other group trekked up the stairs to find the carpet covering them soaked.  At the top of the stairs the next body was waiting, the youngest girl limp with her brain matter and bits of bone and hair decorating the wall behind her the back of her head bashed in.  Checking the bedrooms as they went the flooding and and hum of rushing water lead them inevitably to the upstairs bathroom.  Inside were the last two family members, mother and eldest daughter.  Grace Murphy was slumped besides the bathtub, having bled out from the myriad of slashes and cuts across her body.  Catherine’s body bobbed inside of the over filled bathtub; the faucet still running over white wrinkled toes.  Her face still floated above the water eyes closed with a blank expression.  She looked almost serene until a younger officer reached out and just hardly brushed her skin. At the minuscule contact her bloodshot eyes snapped open from inside their bruised hollows and her blue lips formed into an O.    
  
“Good Lord…” One of the officers gasped his hand on his gun completely unprepared for this situation.  Rivulets of water began to fountain up out of her mouth to be followed by a strangled coughing gurgling sound  as she floundered to grip the side of the bathtub.  The young officer who had jumped back in distress now rushed back to her side to try and aid the girl.  As soon as his hand touched her shoulder she began to scream ragged and guttural, and she continued to scream until they called in the ambulance and the paramedics loaded her into the ambulance.  As they strapped her in the screams subsided into hyperventilation until she passed out once again.  
  
Catherine was in the hospital when she came too, she opened her eyes to see harsh fluorescent lighting above her in the stark white space.  She was naked except for an ill fitting hospital gown and had an I.V. stuck into her left arm.  She felt exhausted even though she’d been unconscious for days.  Catherine blinked up at the ceiling blankly waiting for some understanding of why she was there to dawn on her.  She frowned as nothing came into her mind starting to feel an air of anxiety swell in her chest.  She tried to think of any small thing like what she’d last eaten or he favorite book and nothing came to mind.  She realized she couldn’t even drum up the memory of her own name, though she knew she must have one.  She had no idea who she was.  She sat up carefully and looked around, the room was bare of anything that might belong to her and there were no other people around.  She crawled to the edge of the bed and grabbed the I.V. to steady herself.  It was hard to operate her legs at first, they felt stiff and alien, but she got the hang of it enough to hobble around the room a bit and locate a piece of paper inside a laminated folder at the end of her bed appearing like a label of who she was.    
  
  
She assumed the name had to be hers; Catherine, she waited for a moment expecting the name to feel right or wrong, but she felt no inclination either way in truth.  “Oh, it’s good to see you’re awake.”, a pleasant man’s voice distracted her from the label.  “My name’s Simon and I’m going to be the nurse on duty tonight.”, he leafed through his clipboard humming some sort of tune, but then stopped suddenly. “Oh dear…”, he murmured with a shocked look on his face.  He trailed back to the door and shut it solemnly before coming back and motioning for Catherine to sit down on the bed.  She sat down shooting the grim man a perplexed look.  “I apologize, I didn’t have time to read your chart before now and I didn’t realize that there were some things we needed to tell you once you were awake….I’m sorry, but it seems that when you were brought to the hospital Thursday night you’d been found when the police responded to a call about your residency, but the rest of your family were not recovered alive.”, he told her gently his eyes soft and compassionate.  “I know it’s a lot to process right now and what you’ve been through must have been awful, but you’re safe here and myself and the rest of the staff are here for whatever you need. We even have a grief counselor we can have come speak to you and you can call for assistance using the red button on your remote and we will respond as soon as we can.  Is there anything I can do for you right now?”  
  
“I’m sorry but, I...I don’t know about any of this you’re talking about.”,  Catherine admitted awkwardly.  “I don’t remember anything…”  
  
Surprise flashed across Simon’s face, he flipped through the chart to verify she was indeed the correct patient. “Short term memory loss isn’t all that uncommon after trauma, what’s the last thing you can remember?”  
  
“Waking up here is the first thing I remember, everything else is blank.”, she told him.  “I had to look at the bed label to try and figure out my name, honestly.”  
  
“Uhhh, alright how about we run some vitals on you and I’ll ask you some questions.”,  He told her producing several medical instruments from the phannie-pack type bag he carried.  “Do you know what a president is?”. He asked staring through a scope and he shined a small light in each of her eyes in turn.  
  
“Yes, a president in the highest elected official in the United States.”, Catherine answered promptly sitting up straight and stiff while he examined her.    
  
“Now do you know who the president currently is?”  
  
“Um...no idea.”, She shrugged as he took her pulse then moved on to testing her blood pressure.  
  
“Okay, can you count to ten for me?”, he requested next.  
  
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”, she recited feeling a little bit silly doing it.  
  
“Okay, good job, now tell me how old you are.”, he requested pressing her scalp with his finger tips looking for any bumps or contusions.    
  
“I have no idea about that either.”, she admitted.    
  
Simon frowned and took out a little walky from his pocket. “Hey, can someone call down to Carol to set up a CT scan for our patient here in room 405?”, he spoke into it.    
  
That led to Catherine being wheeled downstairs and her head scanned, but the scan as well as every other test they ran on her indicated she was perfectly healthy.  She got tired of the tests quickly as well as the people who talked to each other about her condition often using words she couldn’t understand.  She was glad when they finished all the tests and let her lay down back in her room.  The bad thing about laying down for bed was that it was hard to sleep in the hospital with all the beeping machines and the constant hum of nurses and aides walking and talking out in the hallway.  It made it hard for her to sleep which left her lying awake thinking about the few hours of memories and information she now had.  She had really no idea who she was or anything about herself other than the fact that she was now an orphan, it was a pretty bleak first outlook and she had a feeling it wasn’t getting any better.    
  
The next day was no more fun for her than the last, though she did get some time to at least freshen up in the bathroom before the doctor got there.  It was strange looking at her own face and not recognizing it.  She made faced and squished her cheeks getting to know it in all her round-face gap-tooth glory.  Her eyes were nice at least, big and blue.   
  
Doctor Michelle came in and to explain a few things to her as she had been Catherine’s primary doctor all her life.  “So you know who I am?”, Catherine asked the tall dark skinned woman as she flipped through all the papers that had piled up documenting all the different exams that had been run on Catherine.    
  
“Somewhat, you did come to me your entire life as well as your brothers and sister.”, she chuckled softly.    
  
“I had siblings then?”, Catherine asked.  
  
“Yes, of course, may they rest in peace….your mother and father were primarily known for their selflessness in adoption and foster care.”, she explained.  They had three other children at the same time as you, I believe.  Paige and Austen were the little ones and Jeremy was a bit older than you, but I do believe he left home a year or two ago….Cassia and Paula actually may have been around when you were younger, but they moved to the city years and years ago….”  
  
“So, I was adopted then?”, Catherine asked.  The names really meant nothing to her without any memories to pin them to.    
  
“Oh yes, every child they had was adopted, they never had any biologically. “ The Doctor said.    
  
“What was I like? I don’t remember anything about myself really.”  
  
“You were always a very quiet girl, well behaved and reserved, when you visited my office you always wanted the butterscotch flavored suckers.”, she smiled warmly.    
  
Before Catherine could ask any other questions there was a knock on the door to her room.  When they looked up there was a an officer in uniform in the doorway.  “I’m officer Wilhelm, I was told this was the room where I could find a Miss Murphy?”  
  
“Ah, yes, have any of the nurses briefed you on the situation…?”, Doctor Michelle rose and met the man at the door.    
  
“I was told that she had no memories of the murders, but I thought she could possibly know something from the days leading up to the event.”  
  
“Uh, you misunderstand, Officer, she has no memory at all.  It seems to be severe retrograde amnesia.  She can’t remember anything before arriving in the hospital, however she is able to make and store new memories.  We haven’t been able to identify the cause yet however.”, The doctor explained.    
  
“Would it be much use for us to question her, Doctor? Could it possibly bring up any memory?”, the man asked respectfully.  
  
  
“I’m not sure I can say for certain as we don’t know the cause for sure at this time.  It could very well be psychologically induced from the trauma she has been through, but that type of amnesia usually only affects the trauma in question, not the entirety of long term memory. I also wouldn’t want to potentially upset the patient without a specialized psychologist present to talk her through it.”, She began to rattle off making Catherine feel strange being talked about as if she wasn’t there.    
  
“Uhhh, I guess I’ll just stick to telling her what we’ve got found out, then you all can call the station if you figure all that brain stuff out.” The officer decided  obviously not understanding half of what the Doctor had told him.    
  
“Alright, I have a couple calls to make while you talk to Catherine, then….was Detective O'Malley planning on stopping in at any point…? I was told that he was in charge of the investigation and I had some paperwork for him from Catherine's tests as well as autopsies on the family…”  
  
“Yeah, is his case, but he sent me here to check things out ‘cause he was swamped today, I can take the papers to him if you want.”, Wilhelm offered enthusiastically reaching for them.    
  
“No!”, Doctor Michelle cried out and pulled her arms back causing a few of the papers to fall out of her arms and flutter to the ground.  Catherine caught a glimpse of a weird bird shaped stamp on one of the papers before the doctor quickly swept them back into her arms.  “I-I’m sorry, it’s just sensitive information I’m only approved to release to certain individuals...it’s just a formality but it could get me in legal trouble even to just hand it over.”, she stammered tucking a strand of curly hair back into place.    
  
“Of course, ma’am, sorry for the assumption, I’ll make sure the Detective gets down here posthaste.”  he assured her sheepishly.    
  
“Thank you, I’ll, uh, step out now then..”, The doctor edged out of the room uncomfortably leaving Catherine alone with the Officer.    
  
Wilhelm cleared his throat and turned to the girl who was still sitting on the edge of her hospital bed staring with wide eyes at him. “So, We haven’t gotten very far in the investigation yet, but we have a few leads, the most prominent seems to be that Jeremy Murphy was sighted in town just before the murders and is our prime suspect...it’s likely he didn’t act alone though, maybe brought friends or somethin’….and I suppose I can’t ask you to confirm or dispute any of that since you can’t seem to remember…”  
  
“I, uh, hope you catch him then.”, Catherine told him uncertain of what else to say when she had no memories to make her emotionally invested.    
  
“We’ll do our best miss, and here’s a card with the number for the station if you remember anything or wanna ask how the investigation is going.  We have a couple people there at any given time, so don’t be afraid to give a call.”, he cleared his throat again clearly ready to leave.   
  
“It was nice to meet you.”, Catherine informed him taking the card, “Thank you for talking to me, it’s nice that people care about trying to help even if I can’t remember what for.”  
  
“Uh yeah, nice meeting you too, miss…”, He coughed before slipping out and leaving the door half open.    
  
The next few days were pretty boring with no tests and no police wanting to talk to her.  She found out she hated hospital food, but the little juices and icecreams they brought her weren’t too bad. The medical staff couldn’t find anything wrong with her and the police couldn’t get anymore information from her so she wasn’t of much concern to anyone after the initial fascination.  She’d be more than likely kicked out of the hospital soon and become a ward of the state until she turned eighteen.   It was only Doctor Michelle meeting with Detective O’Malley privately that changed that….  
  
*************************************************  
  
“I have all the paperwork for you O’Malley.”, the Doctor spoke quietly after glancing around the dark parking lot they had met in.   “It seems that the Murphy’s reports to us for some years have been somewhat inaccurate from what I’ve been finding…The hospital can’t keep her forever, have they decided on new homing for her?”  
  
“There have been a few suggestions...Cassia and Paula have volunteered, but I’m not sure they can be trusted....there’s really any number of members that could take her, but surprisingly they seem to want to leak her whereabouts to **_Bruce Wayne_** if you can believe that…”, The tall man spoke through his wiry black mustache.    
  
“Let her go to someone outside of us, and him of all people?”, Doctor Michelle gasped.  
  
“He would undoubtedly take her in and it could be a good foot in the door for us, I would be in support of it, actually.”  
  
“I suppose it’s over both of our heads in the long run...be careful with these papers and let them know to hurry it up, I can only justify holding her in the hospital a couple more days.”, with that she handed over the file and walked away back to her car with a parting nod.     
  
*****************************************************  
  
After being in the hospital a little over a week they couldn’t hold her anymore seeing as there was nothing wrong with her physically and she was stable enough not to be checked into the psych-ward.  With the ripped clothes she’d been recovered in in evidence and the farmhouse still an active crime scene she was given donated clothes to wear out of the hospital which consisted of dark jeans that were a size too tight on her big hips and a scratchy t-shirt with stupid glitter stripes on it.  They had told her that someone would be there to pick her up from whatever her new house arrangement was to be, but hadn’t given her much information other than that.  She imagined it would probably be a big van or bus for a children's home, a.k.a. Orphanage as she sat outside the hospital on a bench examining how the light rain was dripping onto the clunky sneakers they gave her to wear.    
  
“Miss Catherine Murphy?” a voice called to her from what had to be the nicest car she’d ever seen parked in front of her.  A greying, older man sat inside looking at her expectantly.  Catherine rose to her feet and drifted closer, perplexed by the situation; this car was surely not from some type of orphanage. He stepped out of the car and walked around until he stood close in front of her.  “Pleased to meet you, Miss Murphy. My name is Alfred Pennyworth and I’ve been sent here by my employer to collect you. Do you need help with your things?”  He asked politely, gesturing to the plastic bag that contained a change of clothes that were also from the hospital’s donations.    
  
“Um, that’s ok, I can carry them.”, Catherine managed still taking in the strange situation in awe.    
  
“Then shall we?”, Alfred opened the door to the back of the car with a graceful pull and smiled at her encouragingly.  Catherine pressed her hand to her cheek and frowned to herself considering her options for a moment.  She hadn’t been expecting something so fancy, but no other cars seemed to be there for her so it had to be the correct one.  After a moment she decided to just climb into the vehicle, it wasn’t as if anything was apt to make much sense to her at that moment anyway so why not take a chance? She sat down inside fastening her seat belt and Alfred closer the door behind her.    
  
  


Catherine was quiet for the first part of the trip; increasingly nervous despite herself once they were on the highway.  The situation seemed like the beginning to a human trafficking case.  There was a dividing wall between the back and front seat but the window at the top was left open so she could see Alfred’s face through it.  She opened her mouth to try and speak but snapped her mouth shut again losing her nerve.  After clearing her throat she was able to squeeze out a question in a high uncertain voice.  “Uh, w-where are you taking me?”  
  
“Oh dear, did no one call to inform you?” He fretted glancing back at her.  “Master Wayne, my employer does extensive charity work and heard about your case, Miss Catherine, it seems most likely that you’ll be staying with us at Wayne Manor.”  
  
“Oh, um, they told me someone was coming, but they didn’t tell me who.”, Catherine gave a little laugh in relief rubbing her knuckles against the side of her jaw to try to dismiss some of her anxiety.    
  
“I’m quite sorry for the confusion, I thought you knew!”, Alfred said genuinely abashed “We are heading to Gotham city which will be coming into view shortly, more specifically Gotham Heights where the Manor is.”  
  
“That sounds reeeaally fancy...I don’t know if I’ve ever been into the city before, the Doctor said that I lived on a farm before, but I don’t remember anything so if I **_have_** been in a city before it’s basically like I haven’t”, Catherine mused.    
  
“Master Bruce and I were informed about the situation of your amnesia...there’s the city coming up now, I’ll drive through it if you’d like instead of going around, it is a very old city and quite scenic to those interested in that sort of thing.”, Alfred offered.  
  
“That’d be great!”, Catherine beamed actually excited and beginning to feel less wary of the old britt.  She rolled down the window is they came into the city so she could see better.  The traffic wasn’t too bad so they weren’t at a crawl, but she was able to catch most of the view. “What’s this style called, is this what they call art deco?”, Catherine grinned.    
  
“Indeed.”, Alfred confirmed glancing back at the excited teen-ager with a smile.  
  
She was excited to see the the people walking down the street in the most interesting clothing, some street performers even catching her eye.  She thought the graffiti was intriguing calling the surrealist spray paint murals and gang symbols alike street art. Cathedral square was one of the best sights when they drove through it, having things like giant ancient churches next to big screens playing advertisements and little hole in the wall restaurants with flashing neon signs.  Catherine had just finished ogling the tall swaying trees of one of the city parks and was staring at the loops of a rollercoaster above the buildings ahead of them when blaring sirens started drew her attention instead.  She strained looking out the back window to watch them go, there seemed to be a commotion a few blocks back so she stuck her head out of the window to see what was going on.  Those pops going off a few streets back had to be gunshots and she almost swore she could hear a faint laugh somewhere amid the sharp sounds of the city.    
  
“Miss Catherine, ** _please_** stay inside the car!” Alfred said sharply with a concerned glance back at her.  “The city can be quite dangerous, I’m afraid.  Luckily we are almost through the city, it will only be a few more minutes before we get to Gotham Heights.” he said in a more even tone once her head was back inside the car and the window rolled back up.  The traffic was letting up and the car began to glide across a huge bridge away from the thickets of buildings.    
  
The sun was beginning to set when the car arrived at a towering metal gate pausing for a moment before they opened for the car.  The manor was huge and sprawling, with its gardens and pavilion houses bathed in orange light of the setting sun.  The house itself was beautiful, reflecting the dark style of most of the city’s architecture even boasting a tower or two. Inside the gates with all the sprawling lawn and gardens you could hardly tell that they were just outside a city.  Alfred opened the car door for her and led her to the front of the house.  Catherine bent backwards as Alfred let her through the giant oak doors of the main entrance trying to absorb it all.    
  
Inside Alfred began listing off different rooms to her as they passed them. The walls were so high and covered in gorgeous paintings, some of which were bigger than her.  “I might not be able to remember anything, but I **_definitely_** don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere this fancy!”, She bit her lip suddenly feeling very out of place.  She felt like she was way too under dressed to even set foot in the house.    
  
“Master Bruce is probably waiting in his study if you’ll follow me.”, Alfred beckoned her leading her through the center of the house walking around the main staircase to reveal  a secluded room behind it .  He knocked on the door while Catherine waited a few feet away.    
  
“Come in”, a muffled voice called though the wood door.  Alfred opened the door for her and she walked in to the Study to see the tall and broad dark haired man sitting at the desk.  “Hello Catherine, my name’s Bruce Wayne and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”, he beamed at her with ice blue eyes.  “Please, sit down.”, he gestured to the chairs across from him.    
  
“Um, hi, it’s nice to meet you too.”, Catherine smiled back shyly.    
  
“I hope you like my home, because you’ll be staying here from now on.” He gave a well meaning chuckle.    
  
“It’s really nice, like crazy nice...I’m definitely not complaining, but are you sure you’ve got the right girl?  I don’t remember anything, but I don’t really feel like I’m good enough for all this.”, She laughed this time to hide the real uncertainty she was swelling in her chest.    
  
“I promise there’s no mistake, I have two boys I’ve adopted that lost their families too so it’s not exactly out of character for me. I lost my own mother and Father when I was eight to a robbery gone bad, I want to help kids like you.”, Bruce smiled gently.  “I’m a little busy tonight so we can talk more in the morning, but Alfred can get you anything you need tonight.  There’s a bedroom set up and there might be a few things for you to wear, but we’ll go shopping and get things to make you more at home soon.”  
  
“Okay, um, thank you and goodnight”, Catherine bid him standing up and backing towards the doorway still unnerved, but at least in a good way that left a warm feeling in her chest.    
  
“Goodnight Catherine, and again; it was good to meet you.”, he gave a friendly wave as she walked out and Alfred closed the door behind her.    
  
“Catherine would you like anything to eat or drink before bed? I’m sure anything here would be much better than what you’ve been eating at the hospital.”, Alfred joked.    
  
“I’m mostly tired really, they do dinner early at the hospital, but it was really hard for me to sleep there with all the lights and sounds.”, she shrugged.  
  
“I’ll take you to your room then if you’re ready for bed.”, Alfred said leading her around and up the stairs to the second level.  There were so many doors to rooms that were probably mostly empty.  As they were walking to the far right of the building a door flew open and nearly hit her.    
  
“Oh, dude, i’m sorry about that!” A boy that looked about fourteen peered around the door not looking very sorry at all, “You’ve gotta be the girl that’s gonna live here, right?"  
  
“Yes, Master Jason, this is Catherine and she will be staying here.”, Alfred rolled his eyes, but was still clearly amused.    
  
“Whaddya like to be called, do you have a nickname?” Jason asked her abruptly.  “It’d be Cat or Cathy, right?”  
  
“I don’t like Cathy, but Cat is okay I guess.”, Catherine shrugged smiling back at the intense boy.    
  
“Cat it is then.”, He stepped out of the room fully.  “I gotta go talk to Bruce, bye!”, he jogged down the hall and down the stairs leaving the door wide open.    
  
“He seems like a good kid.”, Catherine laughed as Alfred closed the open door and led her to the front right corner room.  He opened the door for her and she just stepped in and took it in at first.  The bed was huge and there were big windows on the far wall that overlooked the grounds of the manor and the distant city with a sun-porch balcony  attached to the corned of the room.  On another wall there was a personal bathroom included next to a walk in closet.  “Woooow…”, was all Catherine could say.    
  
“If everything is to your liking, I’ll leave you to it Miss Catherine.”, Alfred said standing in the doorway watching her.    
  
“Yeah, I’m fine, and you can call me Cat too if you want Alfred.”, she smiled.  “Goodnight!”  
  
“Goodnight, Miss Catherine.”, he closed the door and walked back down the stairs to where Bruce was preparing to go out for the night. “Are you going out tonight, Master Bruce?  
  
“I will be very shortly, Dick is already out looking into things...the Joker was causing some trouble in Newtown earlier, but nothing serious enough that I had to leave immediately, he’s already back in hiding.” Bruce sighed.   
  
“Miss Catherine and I drove past that ruckus I believe, we didn’t see anything however.”  
  
“That's good, I wouldn’t want her worrying about that type of thing yet, I don’t think it’d be good for her….I do think the Joker must be planning something bigger though.  There was a shootout, but no casualties….maybe a bid for attention?” Bruce said becoming lost in thought with a sigh. “I was going to take Jason out tonight to get him more experience, but he’s not ready to face any of the rogues yet, so he’s sulking in the kitchens.”  
  
I will look afte Master Jason, but it sounds like you should be on your way then, Sir” Alfred said raising an eyebrow.   
  
“You’re right.” Bruce agreed walking towards the Grandfather Clock in the back of the Study with conviction.  Suddenly he turned back to Alfred with a senseless grin and his eyes beaming.  “Oh, and Alfred, did you notice? She has my eyes.”  
  


  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and feel free to comment what you think, I will be posting more soon. 
> 
> I will be posting some pics and headcannons on my tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/blue-boar if you wanna catch some behind the scenes thoughts. Feel free to shoot me asks or messages there too :)
> 
> And a shout out to my best friend, Alison, who let me spout all my fanfic bullshit at her, without her I would never have had the nerve and focus to ever post anything


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